Laurentian Abyss

The Laurentian Abyss is an underwater depression off the eastern coast of Canada in the Atlantic Ocean.^[1] Not a trench, but more of an "underwater valley", it is estimated to be at most ~19,685 feet (3.7 miles; 6.0 km) in depth. The Laurentian Abyss is a product of glaciation and water currents from the Saint Lawrence River.^[2]

The trench is the site of hydrothermal vents with their own sub ecosystems independent of sunlight.^[3]

In popular culture

• The Laurentian Abyss was the covert rendezvous point for Soviet and American submarines in the 1990 technothriller film The Hunt for Red October. The location, however, was a departure from the original 1984 novel by Tom Clancy.
• In the 2007 film Transformers, the body of Megatron is dropped into the abyss. It is stated that the pressure and "sub-freezing" temperatures (presumably meaning below the freezing point of pure water at 1 atmosphere of pressure) at this depth would "crush and entomb" the evil alien robot. However, the film doubly erroneously states that the abyss is, at 7 miles (11.3 km) below sea level, the deepest point on Earth; the actual deepest point is the Challenger Deep, a section of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, which has an estimated depth of slightly less than seven miles. In the 2009 film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the remains are found at the bottom of the Abyss and Megatron is reactivated. Decepticon Protoforms are also seen climbing up a destroyed ship sinking into the Abyss waters. The film incorrectly states that the abyss is 9,300 fathoms deep, or about 55,800 feet (10.6 miles; 17.0 km) deep.

See also

• Abyssal plain

References

Notes